The Dirty River Boys are paving their own road as they travel it. They are a testament to the idea that “if you can dream it, you can do it,” moving with determination ever closer to the light. Above all is their belief in their music. It motivates them and provides exultation for each member, as well as for the audiences who have become fans by the force field the band creates in live performance.
The new album, Science Of Flight, has been described by The Dirty River Boys as Western, Fat, and Rock and Roll. It touches on myriad emotions with gentle harmonies that shimmer with beauty, acoustic rave-ups, and hook driven tunes. Marco, Nino, Travis and CJ put aside just five days for the process. They played everything on the album themselves, only tapping on the legendary Kim Deschamps to lay down pedal steel. Expect surprises; Wurlitzer, marching drum sounds, train whistles, a rattlesnake. The band was mindful of their ability to recreate the sounds on stage in the live environment.
We caught up with Nino of The Dirty River Boys to ask him some questions about the band’s name, their most memorable gig and their funniest memory! Check it out!
What has been your most memorable gig?
That’s a tough question! Steamboat, Colorado is really memorable for us because our first show out of Texas was at Steamboat Music Fest and we’ve gone back and played that every year. We always look forward to Steamboat because it’s a vacation as well as just playing music. There’s a strong sense of community up there. As far as rowdy shows, we had a festival in Texas where beer cans were flying and spraying all over the place. CJ’s bass got hit with a beer can and he wasn’t happy about that at all.
When playing a show, how do you connect with the crowd?
It depends on the room and it depends on the crowd. If it’s more of a quiet listening room, then we’ll talk to the audience and talk more about each song. If it’s more of that rowdy crowd, Travis is really good at getting them engaged and getting them to stomp their feet or sing along. I think the bottom line is they can connect with our music, that’s where the whole connect starts.
How did you come up with your band name?
We’re all originally from El Paso, Texas so we wanted something that represented where we are from as well as sounded like the type of music that we were writing and playing, and that was some kind of modern interpretation of an old sound with all acoustic instruments. The Rio Grande is a muddy river and we thought that encompassed what we were trying to portray.
Where does your inspiration come from?
All different kinds of songwriters from John “Townes” Van Zandt to Bob Dylan to Ryan Adams. As far as our storytelling goes, there is never a certain formula. It’s always experiences or life or relationships. Sometimes it’s our adventures on the road, sometimes it’s more internal emotions. Bottom line, it’s just experiences. It’s always something different and it always just kind of happens.
What is your dream gig? Venue? Lineup?
Madison Square Garden with the Rolling Stones. How about that? (laughs)
What is your funniest memory as a band?
We were leaving El Paso and heading out to play a show. You drive through these check points out of El Paso. They pull us over at the check point and take us out of the van. They’re searching the van and they’re talking to us and asking us, ‘Are you sure there is nothing in the van?’ They’re about to start ripping apart the van. They guy was being extremely tough with us. He takes us around the van and he’s like, ‘I heard you guys on the radio and I just want to shake your hands. Thank you so much for what you’re doing. You’re making El Paso proud!’ We signed a CD for him. It was a hard-core interrogation switched to a super friendly conversation.
What are your plans for the remainder of 2013?
We’ll be writing new music. This east coast run is Marco and I doing it as the Dirty River Boys and it’s more of a broken-down acoustic thing. On the 16th, we head back to Texas, and we’ll be full band for the rest of the year. We’ve got some cool shows coming up and some new songs we’re working on. We’ll be playing a lot of festivals. We’ll be doing Steamboat Music Fest again in January.
Make sure to catch The Dirty River Boys at Smith’s Olde Bar on Wednesday, June 12th! Tickets below!
